Search engine optimization (SEO) generally describes the use of computing systems for running computing processes that collect, store and analyze search engine data in order to provide recommendations to improve visibility of a website or a webpage in search engines. Search engine results can be obtained by various search strategies, such as natural, un-paid, organic, or algorithmic search results as well as for paid search algorithms of search engine marketing (SEM) target paid listings. Generally, the higher a website is located on a website listing and the more frequently a website appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine's users. An entity may target different kinds of search results besides strictly website results for SEO. For example, universal results, such as images, location, videos, news, and other industry-specific vertical search results can be optimized for search engines. SEO can improve the availability of a website or other digital content to internet users.
SEO is implemented by Internet Technology (IT) professionals to improve the volume and quality of traffic to a given webpage or other Internet site. Typical techniques include keywords in title tags, keywords in meta tags, keywords in body text, anchor text in inbound links, age of site, site structure, link popularity in a site's internal link structure, amount of indexable text/page content, number of links to a site, popularity/relevance of links to site and topical relevance of inbound link tags, any of which can include SEO data. Additional techniques are sometimes employed based on the search engine for which the webmaster is attempting to optimize. Since search engine algorithms and metrics are proprietary, SEO techniques are widely used to improve visibility of a webpage or other online data on search engine result pages.
In the past, when a general search was performed, search engines displayed only websites that best matched the query on its results page. Recently, in response to general search queries, search engines have begun to blend website results (i.e. non-category specific results) with universal results (i.e. category specific results) relevant to the search query thereby affecting the volume and quality of traffic to a given webpage or other Internet site.
The subject matter claimed herein is not limited to embodiments that solve any disadvantages or that operate only in environments such as those described above. Rather, this background is only provided to illustrate one exemplary technology area where some embodiments described herein may be practiced.